PR achievements on first attempt

We're releasing a slight change to our PR (personal record) achievements. Now, when you first attempt a new segment you will receive a PR. Before, this would only occur on the second attempt if you beat your PR.

Hi Elle - I just completed a ride today and set a few PR's that were also KOM's (not something I do often!). I noticed that they are only showing on the ride page as PR's which is unusual as I would normally see KOM or Top xx when looking at other riders I follow. Any idea why this is happening? I would think a Top 10 or KOM is more important than a PR.

I'm happy to finally see achievements for a first attempt (thanks!), but it'd be nice for a unique "first attempt" achievement. That would not only imply "PR", but highlight that it was their first time in an area, inviting extra discussion (e.g. "that's a great area... so many wonderful side roads to explore the next time you're there!").

by definition if it's your first time on a segment then it is your PR... kinda nice to get the visual feedback when you do explore somewhere new, even if it's possibly a bit ridiculous having "85 PRs on your ride way to go!" :)

I like the idea of a separate "First Attempt" achievement. I honestly find it silly to have a PR on the first attempt. To me, a record or "best" is measured against a previous result or against a competitor.

Tto me a personal best time cannot be the only time. If I cook for example paella for the very first time, it makes no sense to say "This is the best paella I have ever made". If I drive to Chicago for the first time ever, it makes no sense to say "Wow, that was my fastest drive to Chicago ever".

About this bug causing Top 10 results to show as only PR. I've noticed this both for myself and my friends. It seems to me that is has gradually become worse the last few weeks. It started with one or two segments not showing as Top 10, but now no Top 10 is displayed at all. I hope you will get that bug fixed soon. After all, it's kind of weird how much motivation and inspiration one can get from an imaginary trophy. But it does work, so please get this fixed.

I'm not such an avid or competitive cyclist that PRs are super important for me. However, I do enjoy them as a way of tracking your rides. And I must say that I really think this change is a bad idea, for a number of reasons:

- The PRs on first attempts can drown out actual PRs on segments you have ridden many times. This is especially the case if you ride in an area with many segments and can take many different (new) routes while at the same time passing familiar segments.

- Your achievements loose their significance as signs of your progress or how well your ride was. One day you might do a really good training along a familiar route and get 5 or 6 achievements (which, on a trajectory you ride very often can be quite something). The next day you do a really shitty training along an unfamiliar route and get 30 PRs. The second ride will stand out much more while the first ride was actually much more significant.

- To set a "Personal Record" on a frist attempt frankly makes no sense. A record is supposed to be a 'best' or 'better' effort compared to (an)other effort(s). It implies a point of comparison. If it's your first attempt there is no other ride to compare it to, so why call it a "record"? It is something else... Which bring us to my suggestion.

Suggestion: I am very much in favour of some kind of symbol to indicate that someone rode a segment for the very first time (something like this was suggested on this forum before). It shows that somebody has been exploring a new area. It could for example trigger the rider's curiosity to go have a look at the time of other riders on those new segments. It could be spur somebody on to pass there again.

Instead of putting "PR" in front of those new segments, a symbol with "N" (for "new"), "FT" (for "first time") or something like a star is a far better idea.

Implementing a symbol to indicate that a rider did a segment for the first time would mark a clear difference between:

Not sure I care for this change. As someone who regularly cycles in new areas, it does mean my rides now have 30+ PRs, when it used to be just 1 or 2 - while that sounds good in theory, it kind of makes it hard to find those segments where I REALLY DID put in a major effort to improve on my time, compared to those that I've just ridden for the first time and could have taken as long as I liked and still got a PR.

Personally, I'd have gone the other way - no PR for a new segment and then the second time you ride it, you get the PR if you beat your previous time, but you DON'T get a 2nd place if you fail (2nd out of 2 doesn't deserve a medal!).

However having said that, I'm sure I'll get used to the new way eventually.

Noticed this change a few days ago, and it seems like the equivalent of Strava awarding me a bunch of "Participation Awards" simply for showing up.

Or put another way, it reflects the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality that is so often (and rightly) disparaged.

To me, it is embarrassing to claim a bunch of such trophies, especially since my actual speeds have been around the middle of the pack, at best.

So, I would suggest the following algorithm instead:

- For the Overall Trophies class (KOM through 10th Place Overall): Keep it as always--clearly these should override everything and should always be awarded if you're fast enough to earn one on an overall leaderboard.

- For the Personal Trophies class (PR, 2nd, or 3rd Personal Best): Change the logic to NOT EVER award one of these if that trophy would correspond to my WORST effort so far. This simple logic would handle not only the "first time out" case (where whatever speed you set will always be both your worst and best so far), but will also handle the "second time out" case where Strava would have previously awarded me a 2nd Best Personal Effort trophy even if my speed was actually slower than my 1st time (i.e. my WORST so far) and therefore really not deserving of any trophy. Likewise it will handle the "third time out" properly as well, and beyond that, everything will continue to take care of itself. Basically, to earn ANY kind of PR trophy, you should have to actually beat some previous effort.

- Add a new "Explorer" Trophy class to recognize/reward people for trying new things, as also suggested above by Jeffery. You could then add some "Challenges" related to who can bag the most "Explorer" trophies in a month, which would provide an incentive to folks to get out of a rut and go explore new things.

I realize that implementing that last feature would require a relatively large amount of work and might take a while, but fixing the basic logic for the Personal Trophies would be very simple and I hope you can implement that ASAP.

Put me in the "no thanks" camp. Marking the first time I cross a segment as a PR dilutes the meaning of a PR. It also drowns out any actual achievements. I got an actual PR a few days ago that I worked for and that felt good. Before this change looking at my profile today would still highlight that in my recent "Achievements" section. Now it is a bunch of junk segments from a slow MTB ride in a new area yesterday.

You are also changing a long understood behavior without warning. Sometimes I'd get a PR (or top 3 effort) and I'd forgotten I'd ever run/biked there before. It was a nice prompt to go check out my previous results. When this started happening I submitted a bug report because that behavior changed. Others I'd chatted with about this assumed it was a bug.

It feels like Strava is trying to give people something to feel good about and keep their excitement level high (for exercise and Strava). That is fine and understandable but this feels counter productive. I wish you would find another way to indicate firsts that does not ruin an existing, understood feature.

Hi, I hadn't thought of the idea of an explorer badge for new segments, and I have to say I like it a lot more than the "PR on first attempt". I mean - I was originally not hostile to the idea of a PR on 1st attempt, but I think that the explorer badge is a much better way to approach it.

Another thumb down. Riding a new part of the country now means every segment gets an award. This makes little sense - it's not an achievement. I wouldn't mind but, crucially, there's no way to distinguish between actual achievements (previous times beaten) and new roads ridden (without drilling down into each one).

This is a really silly change. It drowns out actual PRs on a ride. Feels gimmicky and like a participation trophy. Please please go back to the old way, or introduce some sort of 1X marker. No sense in getting a "PR" on something you've never done before.

I just scanned the comments, and seems I'm in the minority here. I don't like the PR's being handed out on a first attempt. It's like getting one those "participation award" trophies and ribbons that get handed out to our kids just for showing up. It's meaningless. I also see little need for a "first attempt" badge.

I share the opinion of many others that it does not make sense to flag a first time segment with a PR. If the idea is to show that a segment has been visited for the first time, then use a different image. E.g. flag it as "NEW".